


The Chase

by wickedorin



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: AU, Action, Gen, Kinda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-05
Updated: 2014-07-05
Packaged: 2018-02-08 04:51:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1927287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wickedorin/pseuds/wickedorin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written as a fill for a drabble request on AwaitingMassProduction: "Robin decided to steal Asimov and Kurou has to save his cat."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Chase

Initially, there was no research done. No questioning, no calling anyone; Argente was spending a “night out with the girls”, and Kurou had just witnessed the very literal cat burglar in the process of removing Asimov from his apartment, 20 seconds after the security alarm sounded, as the android had returned home from a late night test of his motorcycle light configuration. The chase was instantaneous, and the man was—

Well, he was on skates. Or not skates, exactly, but a skate suit. Only as Kurou was well into pursuit did he decide to pull up records, discovering a known criminal who matched the description right away: Robin Baxter. There was no report of him either being released or escaping, but considering his power—

It wasn’t exactly his favored choice, truth be told, but the android believed that he may need a bit of help as he attempted to follow the criminal without getting too close for Asimov’s safety to be further challenged. Dialing a number that few in the city had, he was rewarded with a response on the start of the third ring. “Ms. Joubert. Do you have any reports of Robin Baxter escaping?”

There were three very solid seconds of silence before either surprise wore off or adrenaline kicked in. “Are you looking at him right now?”

"I am currently chasing him. He has my cat."

"Your— Okay, where are you now?"

"Are you attempting to ask so that you may record this incident?"

"Of course I am."

"I do not have my armor, Ms. Joubert. I must apologize profusely, but I cannot allow myself to be filmed."

Agnes sighed sharply. “Do you have one of those stupid masks like Tiger?”

"You are referring to the domino mask that he is convinced that no one can ‘see through’, as it were."

"Yes!"

"While I do have one, I have no intention to make use of it."

"Robin Baxter can change places with anyone he sees! You can’t possibly monitor his every move on your own!"

"Acknowledged. I have reviewed his record. This is why I am attempting to drive him into an industrial space, as there are far fewer people in such areas at this time of night."

"Kurou, you’re killing me here, will you at least consider letting HERO TV film this chase?” Agnes came as close to begging as she was ever going to, pure and simple.

"I do not wish for him to have any publicity while he is free and aware of such occurring." The android asserted. "While tracking him and having a visual record could possibly be important—"

"Yes?"

"I would not want it to be obvious. Nor would I want it to be a live broadcast. Also, my consent to be filmed is not given."

Agnes sighed, deep and wounded sounding. “Alright, alright. I’ll give the pilot the instructions.”

"Thank you, Ms. Joubert. Tracking information is being transferred." Certain that the truth was being told (Agnes did use a lot of methods to get what she wanted, but outright lying wasn’t one of them), Kurou focused solely on the chase. Traffic was light, at the very least, a welcome bit of luck. He caught up to Robin Baxter, managed to get right up to the man’s side in order to peer into the cat carrier, to get a decent reading of Asimov’s elevated heart rate but otherwise unharmed state—

And then Robin veered off with a little laugh, letting a minivan drive between them, the overly-aggressive driver having just been trying to pass. Kurou began slowing his motorcycle out of safety concerns first, the secondary motivation being to keep the escaped criminal in sight. Unfortunately, he was just in time to catch the first sign of that blue glow appearing as NEXT powers were being used, Robin seeming intent upon swapping places with the woman driving the minivan—

There was then quite suddenly a very confused woman stumbling in the middle of a busy highway. It was Kurou’s sheer reaction time that allowed him to swerve, lean over and wrap an arm around the woman as he passed by, losing very little speed in the process. “Pardon me, madam. An explanation will have to wait.”

He could hear the HERO TV helicopter, not daring to look at it simply to prevent attention being drawn to it. He was assured that Robin was being watched; even as he was attempting to speed away in the minivan. Best to slow and lose a little time in order to drop off his unexpected passenger for her own safety, then. The woman was clearly a bit panicked and disoriented even as he came to a stop and allowed her to stand and lean against the emergency roadway railing. Kurou attempted to assure, “I have alerted medical professionals as to your exact whereabouts, madam. Please stay here and remain calm. I will do everything in my power to return your vehicle to you.” With a nod, he simply sped off toward the criminal once again.

It wasn’t until he was mere meters from the back bumper when Robin spotted him. That lead to a rather unfortunate series of events starting with the criminal simply bailing out of the car as it continued forward, momentum carrying the minivan full of groceries quite far with the help of that extra burst of speed, allowing for Robin to quite easily race away from the vehicle with Asimov’s carrier in tow as the minivan’s control was lost. While Kurou was certain that he quite easily could have raced after and had a decent chance of catching the man then—

He couldn’t have. Not really, not at the expense of ignoring all other factors. Bracing himself as the van began to fishtail and spin out of control, he shot his wire to catch the already slightly detaching back bumper. All it took was one proper tug with a rev of the motorcycle to get the minivan righted… if the proper definition of “righted” was safely stopped by the railing on the side of the road. Regardless, seeing that the vehicle was as safely stopped as it could be, he sent a report to the police and to HERO TV even though he was certain that the helicopter cameras had caught the action. (He was relatively certain that Agnes was at the very least sighing about it, as well. He made a note to apologize and offer to pay for damages as soon as possible.)

At that point, the android felt… irritation. A certain very fierce sort of irritation, toward Robin in particular. The man still had Asimov, and was still free when he should not have been. Switching his motorcycle into silent mode, the engine suddenly went quiet as the lights faded to nothingness; but he was catching up to Robin at high speeds. How his hat remained on his head at that acceleration was somewhat astonishing, though he did owe a bit of the vastly decreased wind resistance of the entire vehicle to Dr. Saito.

It wasn’t until he was right up next to the criminal when he was noticed, Robin having the audacity to laugh as he looked over. “You’re even more fun than the Heroes! Can’t let you think you’re gonna win, though.”

There was only one thing he believed that he could do in that situation, one scenario that allowed a decent chance of success. Matching pace with Robin and moving closer, Kurou waited until the telltale glow ignited the NEXT’s eyes. It was that moment of confusion, of not understanding that the man chasing him was actually an android, that shifted the tide; Kurou simply placed his hat over Robin’s eyes with one hand, then grasped the handle to Asimov’s carrier in the other. With the criminal successfully blinded as they moved through a patch of light traffic, the android employed his wire once again for the purpose of binding the man, holding him in place in order to turn off the main road and come to a safe stop, alerting the police.

"Why are you not in jail?" Kurou demanded, satisfied that the man’s struggling was fruitless.

Trying to shake the hat off his head at the first sound of sirens, he was then assured that plan wouldn’t work when his captor wasn’t particularly gentle about pulling it down on his head even further. “Would you believe good behavior?”

"Not after this incident, no." The response was uncharacteristically snappish, but given the circumstances… "You have no doubt frightened my cat beyond his capacity to process the ordeal."

"Holy crap, you’re that android guy."

"Yes." Kurou simplified utterly.

"Well. Wow. This still sucks, but wow." Robin seemed downright giddy about the matter to a point, much to the android’s puzzlement.

Not that he bothered to spend much time figuring the matter out. “Please confine him to an area with a great deal more security.” Kurou suggested to the arriving officers. “I will be pressing charges for animal theft and endangerment.”

"Hey, I returned it!" Robin protested. "I wasn’t gonna hurt your cat."

"I did not know that. And I am still not entirely convinced of it now." He peered in to see Asimov curled into a tiny ball in the furthest corner of his carrier, eyes enormous.

"Aw, I’m offended."

"You probably should be." Watching the policemen take the criminal away, he then assured quietly, "I will take you home and offer you some of the canned tuna which I am told is classified as ‘people food’. I am certain that Argente will allow you the use of his pillow tonight, as well." That did seem the absolute least he could do to make up for the matter.


End file.
